Why Is Kentucky So Corrupt? Why Can't Public Officials Serve Us Without Corruption, But With Distiinction? This Time I'm Referring To PUTRID Ordor Emanating From The Louisville Metropolitan Sewer District.

You can read the story here, follow the report here, and watch Louisville's Mayor, Greg Fischer announce major changes for the sewer district below:

Illinois Supreme Court Grants Permanent Political Reprieve To Chicago's Next Mayor, Rahm Emmanuel. Watch Video.

Halliburton Pays Nigerian Government $250 Million To Drop Charges Against Dick Cheney. Now The Company Can Continue Its Nefarious Activities!

Halliburton Pays Nigeria $250 Million to Drop Charges against Dick Cheney

Halliburton Pays Nigeria $250 Million to Drop Charges against Dick Cheney
Nigeria has agreed to drop corruption charges against former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and other corporate executives accused of bribing the government to secure a profitable natural gas deal. In exchange for the case’s dismissal, Halliburton, the company Cheney ran during the 1990s, agreed to pay $250 million to the Nigerian government.

A Nigerian prosecutor claimed $180 million in bribes were paid by representatives of Halliburton (which Cheney ran as CEO from 1995 to 2000), its former subsidiary KBR Inc., Technip SA (Europe’s second-largest oilfield-services provider), Eni SpA (Italy’s biggest oil company) and Saipem Construction, a unit of Eni, to secure about $6 billion in contracts for building a liquefied natural gas plant.

Last year, KBR was fined $402 million by the U.S. government after officials pleaded guilty to conspiracy and corruption charges. Also, Halliburton and KBR agreed to pay $177 million in forfeited profits, without admitting any wrongdoing, as a result of a separate civil case.

Nigeria We Hail Thee. Watch.

Another In CONgress, Maxine Waters, Wades Into The Unethical Waters -- Pun Was Intended.

Ethics Trial Expected for California Congresswoman
By ERIC LIPTON

WASHINGTON — Representative Maxine Waters, Democrat of California, will face charges of misusing her office and is expected to contest the claims in a House trial, the second powerful House Democrat to opt for such a public airing in recent days, Congressional officials said Friday.

A House ethics subcommittee has charged Ms. Waters, 71, a 10-term congresswoman, in a case involving communications that she had with the top executive of a bank that her husband owned stock in while it was applying for a federal bailout in 2008, two House officials said.

Charges are expected to be announced next week, several Congressional officials said, speaking only on the condition of anonymity because the proceedings remained confidential. Details of the specific accusations of wrongdoing were not available Friday evening.

The expected trial, coming just after the start of a similar proceeding on Thursday for Representative Charles B. Rangel of New York, would be a modern-day precedent for the House, Congressional officials said. At no time in at least the last two decades have two sitting House members faced a public hearing detailing allegations against them.

It would also be an embarrassment for the Congressional Black Caucus. Ms. Waters and Mr. Rangel are two of its most revered and long-standing members, and both have spent decades as key leaders in banking and financial services issues in the House.

Mikael Moore, Ms. Waters’s chief of staff, declined to comment on the case on Friday, saying that the congresswoman had not been formally notified of any action by the ethics committee.

Ms. Waters, at the time the investigation by the House ethics panel began last fall, was accused of intervening on behalf of OneUnited, a Boston-based bank. The Times reported last year that Ms. Waters called Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. in 2008, as the economy was in a free fall, to ask him to host a special meeting with executives from black-owned banks.

As a key House player on the Financial Services Committee, Ms. Waters often called Mr. Paulson. He agreed to arrange the requested meeting, The New York Times reported last year.

What Mr. Paulson did not know at the time was that Ms. Waters’s husband, Sidney Williams, owned stock in and had served on the board of OneUnited, whose chief executive turned the Treasury headquarters meeting into a special appeal for bailout assistance. The executive of the institution, one of the nation’s largest black-owned banks, asked for $50 million in federal aid, The Times reported.

After articles on the case by The Times and The Wall Street Journal, the Office of Congressional Ethics, an independent watchdog agency, began an inquiry. The office referred the matter to the ethics committee, which charged the subcommittee with opening an examination of Ms. Waters’s activities. The four-member subcommittee, which included two Democrats and two Republicans, was led by Representative Kathy Castor, Democrat of Florida.

Because Ms. Waters — like Mr. Rangel — has refused to agree to a proposed settlement, the case is headed toward a House ethics trial, officials said. “She is fighting it,” one House official said Friday.

Ms. Waters made the call to Mr. Paulson on behalf of the National Bankers Association, a Washington-based organization of minority-owned banks. Its incoming chairman, Robert Cooper, was an executive at OneUnited, which had branches in Miami and Los Angeles, part of which Ms. Waters represents.

Mr. Cooper and his boss, Kevin Cohee, the chief executive at OneUnited, ended up dominating the meeting, participants said, and made an unusual request for a special federal bailout.

The Treasury Department officials, in interviews with The Times, said they were taken aback when they later learned about Ms. Waters’s ties to the bank. She had once owned stock in the bank, and her husband still did. He had stepped down from the board earlier that year.

Mr. Rangel separately is facing charges that he inappropriately used his office staff to try to line up donations for a New York City educational center being built in his honor, and also that he failed to report income from a beachfront property he had rented out in the Caribbean.

The prospect of two trials playing out as the November election approaches will almost certainly be seized upon by Republicans, who already had been attacking Democrats’ moral leadership and questioning whether Speaker Nancy Pelosi had lived up to her promise to “drain the swamp” of ethics violations in Washington.

The case could still be concluded without trial, if Ms. Waters decided to settle. But if a trial were to take place, it is highly unlikely that it would start before September, as the House began its summer recess on Friday.

OK, Ethically Challenged CONgressman, Charlie Rangel, Needs To Do All Of Us A Huge Favor And Resign Or Be Booted Out.

Read more here.

It's shamefully awful.

"A BLOODY Revolution" Is Urged For CORRUPT Nigeria, As POTUS Barack Obama Implements Visa Bans For Kleptomanic Officials. I AGREE!

Nigeria: Visa Ban - U.S. Compiles List of Corrupt Citizens
Chinedu Offor

Washington D.c — Dozens of senior Nigerian officials, former and current, are on the verge of losing their travel privileges to the United States, as Washington begins to withdraw their visas and ban them from entering the country on the strength of their loot, proven or alleged.

Quick on the list is former federal Attorney General and Justice Minister, Michael Aondoakaa, whose visa was revoked last week. Former Plateau State Governor, Joshua Dariye, and his family were banned from entering the U.S. four years ago.

Corrupt Nigerian officials are being punished for '"undermining the growth of democracy and acts designed to hinder the strengthening of democratic institutions in Nigeria," the State Department said.

The policy, Daily Independent gathered, is a fall out of the promise President Barack Obama made to President Goodluck Jonathan to assist Nigeria in the fight against corruption by targeting officials whose "acts have bothered on undermining the democratic process."

Sources said others awaiting the punitive measure include several senior assistants and security aides to the late President Umaru Yar'Adua, as well as Governors, Ministers, and heads of agencies.

"This action will also target those identified to have played a role in the controversy over the health of Yar'Adua" Washington officials added.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the action is in pursuant to Presidential Proclamation 7750, which provides authority to deny entry to the U.S. to persons with links to corruption.

Former President George W. Bush had on January 12, 2004 signed Proclamation 7750 to restrict foreign officials and their family members allegedly linked to corruption.

Obama renewed the policy after Jonathan made a case during his visit to Washington in April.

More names will be added on the list as Washington awaits the outcome of corruption cases against several Nigerian officials, the White House said.

Two prominent Nigerians themselves lamented in Lagos on Wednesday the pervasiveness of corruption in the country, as it has become a convenient national culture for those in the corridors of power, with those outside the loop also getting in on the act.

Theophilus Danjuma and Ben Nwabueze, both members of the Presidential Advisory Council (PAC), moaned about it, but disagreed on the way out of the political and economic morass.

Nwabueze, alarmed at the rate of corruption in the system, argued that only a bloody revolution can halt the decadence in governance.

He expressed shock at "the looting spree" in the National Assembly (NASS) "where lawmakers vote billions of Naira to themselves while those who voted them into the House live in abject poverty.

"People who were voted to serve the country go there to loot - you need to know what we (members of PAC) now know."

Nwabueze announced that the deterioration in the state of affairs is such that Nigeria has been listed among the 11 failed states in Africa and among the 17 in the world.

Arguing in favour of a violent revolution, he claimed that France is what it is today because of the success of the 1789 revolution in that country.

"I don't believe in small changes; we've had ad hoc arrangements; Nigeria needs a revolutionary change, and it has to be bloody. Those who survive it will pick up the pieces. I cannot see Nigeria survive any other way."

Nwabueze spoke at the launch of his book, Colonialism in Africa: Ancient and Modern, published in two volumes.

But Danjuma, who chaired the ceremony, said while he agrees with Nwabueze that Nigeria needs transformation, he disagrees with his approach, because a bloody revolution is not the best solution.

Bloody or violent revolutions, he noted, are dangerous since it would not spare anyone and becomes untamable once it takes off.

Danjuma, a retired General, warned: "Revolution devours its scions; it knows no friends or enemies; it is an exceedingly dangerous means of transformation.

"I am an optimist; I believe that one right man in position of authority can transform the entire country. We have not been lucky to have such a man, but we shall muddle through."

Editor's comment: Where's Jerry Rawlings, when you need him for Nigeria?

re News From The Banana Republic, As Nigerian Protesters Demand To See Their AWOL President, Shehu Yar'Adua.

Protesters Demand to See Yar’Adua
•President’s supporters hold counter rally
By Our Correspondents, 03.11.2010

Protesting Save Nigeria Group (SNG) has said it is unacceptable that ailing President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua has been incommunicado since he left the country for medical treatment in Saudi Arabia on November 23, 2009.
The group therefore demanded to see the ailing President.

SNG said yesterday in a letter to Acting President Goodluck Jonathan where the group also stated its demand that members of the Executive Council of the Federation (EXCOF) should invoke Section 144 of the 1999 Constitution and declare Yar’Adua incapacitated to continue in office.
The group has been agitating for Yar’Adua to step aside in the light of his medical problems. The letter received on behalf of Jonathan by Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Yayale Ahmed was the highpoint of yesterday’s rally in Abuja by the group.

“For more than 100 days, Nigerians have not seen or heard from President Yar’Adua since he was evacuated to Saudi Arabia for treatment. For the three months he reportedly stayed in an intensive care unit of a Saudi hospital, several of his aides continued to claim that the President was getting better. Some claimed he had started intense physical exercises. It is now more than two weeks since he was brought back to Nigeria in the dead of the night. We have not still heard from or seen President Yar’Adua.

“The refusal of President Yar’Adua to resign from office on account of his deteriorating ill-health and failure to transmit a letter of vacation on time as required by the constitution has resulted in a severe but avoidable constitutional crisis. This crisis has compounded other political challenges caused by an electoral system that is designed to aid electoral malpractices. This dysfunctional electoral system threatens democracy and good governance in Nigeria,” SNG said.
SNG’s National Coordinator, Pastor Tunde Bakare, who presented the letter containing the group’s requests to government, listed their demands as follows:

*An end to the invisible Presidency of Yar’Adua by activating Section 144 of the Constitution so that presidential powers will be fully accountable;

*The dissolution of the present Executive Council of the Federation which has largely collaborated with presidential aides to foist this crisis on the nation; and

*Quick and thorough implementation of the Uwais Report on Electoral Reform starting with the immediate removal of Professor Maurice Iwu as Chairman and the reconstitution of INEC with persons of impeccable integrity and competence.
Protesters under the umbrella of SNG had gathered at the Fountain Square before Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja by 9am from where they marched to the junction of the Presidential Villa.

The protesters, were, however, denied access to the seat of government.
Security led by Deputy Inspector General of Police in charge of Operations (DIG 'B') Mr. John Ahmadu was tight as both plain clothed and uniformed policemen far outnumbered the SNG protesters.
Around 10.45am, riot policemen had formed a human shield at the Presidential Villa Junction and the Federal Secretariat.
The operatives particularly locked out human rights activist and Chairman of the West African Bar Association, Mr. Femi Falana, and former Chief of Defence Staff, Lt. Gen. Alani Akirinade (rtd), from entering the National Assembly to present their petition to the parliament on the current political crisis in Nigeria.

The duo, who were part of the mass protest of SNG, stormed the gates of the parliament in company with the vibrant preacher, Pastor Bakare, and hundreds of other protesters at about mid-day but were prevented from going beyond the gates.
Before the arrival of the protesters, all the three entrances to the National Assembly were shut and policemen deployed at every pole along the routes leading to the National Assembly and the Aso Rock Presidential Villa.

The presence of the protesters created a long traffic jam on major routes in the Three Arms Zone as lawmakers and other people who work in the National Assembly struggled to gain entry into the area.
Vehicular movement was disrupted throughout the over four hours rally.
It was when the police and other security agents had refused the protesting members of SNG access to the vicinity of the Presidential Villa and sensing a violent response that the SGF arrived to address the rally.

Before then, proponents of the rally notably Gen. Akinrinade, Ayo Opadokun, Falana, Hajia Mohammed Najatu, Uche Onyeaguocha and Faruk Aliyu Adamu among others had addressed the rally.
Akinrinade charged the rally to brace up for more protests, if the government is unwilling to listen to their demands.
“Nigeria does not need two Presidents, one acting and the other sick. We want an effective President who shall be fully in charge,” he said.

Falana, Najatu and others called for the full invocation of Section 144 of the 1999 constitution to save Nigeria from collapse.
They said two options are open to Yar’Adua: to govern if he is well enough for the rigours of governance or quit and that in the alternative, the EXCOF should exercise the powers granted it by the constitution.

Several placards were carried by the protesters with the following messages: “Greedy Governors Don’t Destroy Nigeria”, “No Division in the Presidency”, “We Demand to Know Where Yar’Adua is”, “Sack Iwu Now”, and “On Uwais Report We Stand”, among others.
Meanwhile, another rally, a pro-Yar’Adua one, was holding simultaneously with the SNG march, but at the Eagle Square near the Presidential Villa junction.

Coordinator of that rally, Musa Yakassai, said in a statement he distributed that the ill-health of President Yar’Adua is a natural occurrence and should not be used to disparage his integrity as President of Nigeria
He said there was no need for the full invocation of Section 144 of the constitution as “the Acting President is the legitimate Commander-in-Chief whose ability is not in doubt; the three arms of government are functional, an indication that Dr. Goodluck Jonathan is in charge”.

He said the incessant anti-Yar’Adua rallies were anti-establishment, designed by the opposition to distract the Federal Government from delivering on the assured dividends of democracy to the people.
“We rallied today to give support to the Federal Government, the PDP and the Nigerian political fathers whose commitment to the Nigeria project deserves commendation,” the group, which claims to belong to Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) youth organisation said.

The rallies were generally hitch-free as policemen, led by DIG Ahmadu were on ground to ensure peace.
Senate has, however, said it has no hand in the decision to bar SNG members who embarked on a protest march from entering the premises of the National Assembly.

The police, citing orders from above, had barred the protesters from gaining access into the complex like they (protesters) did on January 12, this year, when it embarked on a similar action to call for the empowerment of Jonathan as Acting President.
Reacting to the police action, Vice-Chairman of the Committee on Information and Media Anthony Manzo stated that the Upper House was not party to the decision to stop the protesters.

Manzo also explained that Senate President David Mark and the leadership of the Upper House had no reason to shun the protesters, explaining that the inability by Mark to address the protesters did not amount to shunning them.
According to him, “I am not aware the protesters were barred from entering into the National Assembly because we are ready to receive anybody who engages in any meaningful protest (and) provided that it is not violent.

“Why I used the word meaningful is because what is meaningful to a group may not be meaningful to another group. It is the beauty of our democracy; we are growing and I hope that time will come in which we will have a speaker’s corner here like they have in the UK where people can come up and protest on anything.
“Non-violent protest, that is what we encourage and it is good; it is part and parcel of democracy and it is very good for us.”

Responding to another question on why the protesters were prevented, he replied: “They were prevented? I hope you know that it is not by Senators who were in the National Assembly. Are you telling me that they were prevented by the security services?
“The Senate President can never issue that directive; we are very open to receive any peaceful demonstration that is why this is the Parliament and it is regrettable if that happened...

“The Senate President always receives any group of people; you can see that his schedule is busy; but if you are saying that whether the Senate President will receive them tomorrow, I can’t make a categorical statement.
“This is because the Senate President is a busy man; he has schedule; and I don’t think that the Senate President will have any objection whatsoever to receiving any group of Nigerians, because we are a law making chamber.

“This is the centre of democracy and certainly Professor Wole Soyinka and his group are welcome any time.”
Manzo also reacted to the call by former Head of State, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, for the impeachment of ailing President Yar’Adua by the National Assembly, saying the Senate was not contemplating impeachment of the President.
He said the Senate was standing by its resolution empowering Jonathan to step in as Acting President pending the resumption of office by the ailing president, stressing that the resolution had helped to stabilize the polity.

Manzo (acting Senate Spokesperson) stated: “In my own view, on the issue of the President, the Senate has already spoken. There is a subsisting resolution on ground, which is working; the one that enabled the Vice-President to become acting president. We believe that the situation is stable.
“As for impeachment, it is a process; there is a parliamentary process that would be started; but, that is not something that we are contemplating at this time.”

Briefing journalists in his office after the rallies, the Commissioner of Police FCT Command John Haruna said there was no reported case of violence of any sort and that he was personally on ground to ensure peace.
He, however, said a young man who was found with a dagger was immediately arrested.

“I want to thank God that everything went on well and there was no record of violence or manhandling by the police. We ensured that every policeman in the command went out and performed his duty by ensuring peace. The young man here was found with a dagger, my men immediately arrested him, but he said it was just for personal protection. Thorough investigation will be carried out on his claim. There was no violence, no problem at all,” Haruna said.

More From The Banana Republic That Is Nigeria, This Time It's Mass Burial For Victims Of Religious War Between Muslims And Christians. Watch Video.

More On The Banana Republic That Is Nigeria, Now It's Muslims Versus Christians In Mass Slaughter. *SIGH*. Watch Video.

More News From The Banana Republic That Is Nigeria.

Nigerian Lawmakers Concerned About Deployment of Military
By Scott Stearns

Nigerian lawmakers want to know who authorized a deployment of troops without the knowledge of the country's acting commander-in-chief.

Nigerian presidents always have troops lining the nearly 30-kilometer drive to Abuja's airport.

They were there again last month when Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua returned after midnight from treatment in a Saudi hospital. But Acting President Goodluck Jonathan knew nothing of his return. Information Minister Dora Akunyili said she heard about it on television.

Because of the president's extended illness, Acting President Jonathan is currently the commander-in-chief of Nigerian armed forces, including those soldiers who were deployed along the airport road without his knowledge.

That has raised concern among some members of parliament about who is commanding Nigerian troops. And it comes at a time when senior officers have repeatedly warned soldiers to stay out of politics, mindful of the instability surrounding President Yar'Adua's illness in a country that has had half-a-dozen coups since 1966.

Ruling-party parliamentarian Patrick Obahiagbon asked about the deployment on the floor of the National Assembly this week. The House immediately went into closed session.

When it was over, Obahiagbon spoke to reporters about his concern.

"Three-hundred soldiers deployed in the middle of the night conveyed in about 25 vehicles with weapons given to them in the wee hours of the night. Supposing the soldiers decided to have a change of mind. And the C-in-C was unaware," he said.

Nigeria's Trade Union Congress wants a public hearing into who ordered the deployment of soldiers without orders from the Commander-in-Chief, saying it is worried that troops trained to respect regimented authorities could act irresponsibly.

Military chiefs briefed lawmakers in private this week about the incident. A parliamentarian who was present for that briefing says the Brigade of Guards was deployed without informing the acting president because those soldiers are responsible for protecting the president and his family, so commanders explained there was no need to notify Mr. Jonathan.

Army Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Abdulrahman Dambazzau was at that briefing. He says soldiers will not be drawn into a political dispute.

"It is a difficult period for everybody, but we believe that it is a political thing. We are not politicians. We are military professionals and we are determined to remain so," said Dambazzau.

The deployment of troops without his knowledge has raised questions about Acting President Jonathan's command of the military. But the strong reaction to that deployment by some of his cabinet members, including Information Minister Akunyili, may have further eroded support among those who still back President Yar'Adua and believe Mr. Jonathan's supporters are over-reacting to a ceremonial detachment of troops showing respect to an ailing leader.

Ibrahim Mark, the general secretary of the Nigerian Bar Association, says some of the acting president's supporters have made the situation worse.

"He has not been able to control these people. So people now will look at him with suspicion. Is he the one authorizing this or authorizing that? I think the information managers in the presidency are not doing too well. We are hearing a cacophony of voices. Nobody seems to be in charge. It is like we are fed with rumors. Nobody seems to talk authoritatively," he said.

Military leaders told lawmakers this week that some politicians have approached them about again taking power in Nigeria, but they have pledged their support to the government currently led by Mr. Jonathan.

Editor's comment: Former President and KLEPTOMANIC in chief, Obusonjo is the UGLY Baboon in the Republic.

Another Banana Republic That Is Niger, Uses Coup To Rid Itself Of Its President, Mamadou Tandja. Is Nigeria Next? Watch Video.

Nigeria Continues To Confirm To The World That It Is Indeed A Banana Republic, Resulting In A New Post Label. Read More Below.

Nigeria: How National Assembly Made Him Acting President
By Abdul-Rahman Abubakar, Nasidi A. Yahaya & Turaki A. Hassan

A unanimous resolution by the National Assembly set the stage yesterday for Vice President Goodluck Jonathan to take charge as Acting President.

The two chambers, apparently trying to break the political stalemate over President Umaru Yar'adua's ill health, asked Jonathan to assume full presidential powers pending the president's return.

Hours before Jonathan's nationwide broadcast, in which he announced taking over powers as acting president, the Senate and the House of Representatives in separate unanimous resolutions asked him to assume office because the president is on medical leave.

The Senate resolution came after a motion on the state of the nation was moved by the Senate leader Teslim Folarin (PDP, Oyo Central), who argued that section 145 of the 1999 constitution which requires the president to transmit a letter to the National Assembly notifying it of his medical leave has been complied with since the president had on January 12 confirmed on the radio that he was ill and receiving medical attention in Saudi Arabia.

"On the 12th of January, 2010, His Excellency President Umaru Musa Yar'adua transmitted to the whole world through the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), a declaration that he is receiving medical treatment in Saudi Arabia and consequently will be unable to discharge the functions of his office until his doctors certify him fit to return to Nigeria to assume duties. The president of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives read the president's declaration transmitted through the BBC and further published in several print media," he said.

However, Senator Garba Yakubu Lado (PDP, Katsina South) raised a constitutional point of order, reminding his colleges that the president's BBC interview was not independently authenticated and that some senators had earlier questioned authenticity of the voice in the interview. He said the interview should not be relied upon as a basis for the resolution.

Seconding the motion Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu said section 145 of the 1999 constitution did not in any way prescribe the manner and form in which the president is to transmit the letter of medical vacation to the National Assembly especially with the advancement in information technology.

Senate resolved thus: "The vice president Goodluck Jonathan shall henceforth discharge the functions of the office of the president, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

"That, the Vice President shall cease to discharge the functions of the office of the president when the president pursuant to section 145 of the 1999 constitution transmits to the president of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives in writing that he has returned from his medical vacation."

Briefing newsmen shortly after the yesterday's session, vice chairman of the Senate Committee on Information and Media Senator Anthony Manzo (PDP, Taraba) said the vice president does not need to take an oath of office as acting president.

The House, after two consecutive closed door sessions, characterized by hot political debate and near-fisticuffs, also resolved that Jonathan should act as president pending Yar'adua's return.

Lawmakers, who were to consider a motion on the matter, failed to do so and instead went into a closed door session at 12:16pm. They emerged after about 30 minutes without a unanimous decision, prompting Speaker Dimeji Bankole to order for another session.

When the House resumed plenary at 1:04pm, House Leader Tunde Akogun (PDP, Edo State) read the resolution: "For peace, order and good governance of the federation, and consistent with the judgments of the courts, the vice president, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCON shall assume full presidential powers, pending the return of the president, Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar'adua, GCFR."

After this, Bankole put the question and members unanimously replied "aye!"

Also yesterday, state governors under the auspices of the Governors' Forum, led by Kwara State Governor Bukola Saraki, visited the House of Representatives to express their resolution to back Vice President Goodluck Jonathan.

In his response, Bankole said the House made its decision in the interest of the country.

He said: "Today, is another day where this House recorded democratic structure whereby the all country has come together: civil societies, elected officials and non elected officials to come to the sole agreement to rescue our nation problem."

But the decision of the National Assembly is not contemplated in the constitution, lawyers said yesterday.

Yar'adua, who long has suffered from kidney ailments, left for Saudi Arabia on November 23 and was admitted to a hospital there for what his physician says is acute pericarditis, an inflammation of the sac surrounding the heart.

A State In The Banana Republic That Is Nigeria Attempts To Hold Elections, Comes Up Revealing Why It Is A Banana Republic. *SIGH*

Delays mar key elections in Nigeria's Anambra state

There have been delays in Nigeria's southern state of Anambra, where voters are electing a new governor.

Many polling stations remained closed for hours because some police officers refused to escort ballot papers, saying they had not received allowances.

Anambra state has a history of electoral fraud.

Saturday's vote there is being seen as a test of Nigeria's ability to hold credible presidential elections next year, correspondents say.

Turbulent politics

On Saturday, many polling stations in Anambra opened more than three hours late because of the delays with the delivery of ballot papers.


If this is the way elections will go in 2011 then we are still millennium years away from the right thing
Egghead Odewale
Independent election observer

"Everything is just in disarray. There is so much confusion in the air and nothing seems to be going on properly," independent election observer Egghead Odewale told the BBC's Newshour programme.

"In a lot of the places, election materials did not arrive on time, materials were not distributed as pre-planned. And in a number of places the voter register was mixed up and voters were unable to locate their names on the voter register.

"Honestly, if this is the way elections will go in 2011 then we are still a millennium years away from the right thing. It's really that bad," Mr Odewale said.




"We are eager to cast our votes. We are waiting but the materials are yet to arrive," Sunday Okpala, a voter in a village just outside the regional capital of Awka, was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.

About 23,000 extra police and military have been drafted into the state for one weekend of voting, amid concerns over voter intimidation and violence, the BBC's Caroline Duffield in Lagos reports.

The state's turbulent local politics have seen a succession of governors elected and then thrown out of office by the courts after vote rigging, fraud and illegality, our correspondent says.

She adds that this time the electoral commission has promised that the vote will be free and fair.

But weeks ago police discovered a lorry stuffed with unofficial ballot papers, and one of the candidates claimed that his father had been kidnapped by political rivals.

Nearly two million voters are eligible to cast their ballots in Anambra to choose their governor among 25 contenders.

Is Nigeria Speeding Towards Being IRRELEVANT As Africa's Haiti? Read More.

If NIGERIA Fails?
By Princeton Lyman*

Thank you very much Prof. Keller and thanks to the organizers of this conference. It is such a privilege to be here in a conference in honor of Prof. Achebe, an inspiration and teacher to all of us.

I have a long connection to Nigeria. Not only was I Ambassador there, I have traveled to and from Nigeria for a number of years and have a deep and abiding vital emotional attachment to the Nigerian people, their magnificence, their courage, artistic brilliance, their irony, sense of humor in the face of challenges etc.

And I hope that we keep that in mind when I say some things that I think are counter to what we normally say about Nigeria. And I say that with all due respect to Eric Silla* who is doing a magnificent work at State Department and to our good friend from the legislature, because I have a feeling that we both Nigerians and Americans may be doing Nigeria and Nigerians no favor by stressing Nigeria's strategic importance.

I know all the arguments: it is a major oil producer, it is the most populous country in Africa, it has made major contributions to Africa in peacekeeping, and of course negatively if Nigeria were to fall apart the ripple effects would be tremendous, etc.... But I wonder if all this emphasis on Nigeria's importance creates a tendency of inflate Nigeria's opinion of its own invulnerability.

Among much of the elite today, I have the feeling that there is a belief that Nigeria is too big to fail, too important to be ignored, and that Nigerians can go on ignoring some of the most fundamental challenges they have many of which we have talked about: disgraceful lack of infrastructure, the growing problems of unemployment, the failure to deal with the underlying problems in the Niger-Delta, the failure to consolidate democracy and somehow feel will remain important to everybody because of all those reasons that are strategically important.

And I am not sure that that is helpful..

Let me sort of deconstruct those elements of Nigeria's importance, and ask whether they are as relevant as they have been.

We often hear that one in five Africans is a Nigerian. What does it mean? Do we ever say one in five Asians is a Chinese? Chinese power comes not just for the fact that it has a lot of people but it has harnessed the entrepreneurial talent and economic capacity and all the other talents of China to make her a major economic force and political force.

What does it mean that one in five Africans is Nigeria? It does not mean anything to a Namibian or a South African. It is a kind of conceit. What makes it important is what is happening to the people of Nigerian. Are their talents being tapped? Are they becoming an economic force? Is all that potential being used?

And the answer is "Not really."

And oil, yes, Nigeria is a major oil producer, but Brazil is now launching a 10-year program that is going to make it one of the major oil producers in the world. And every other country in Africa is now beginning to produce oil.

And Angola is rivalling Nigeria in oil production, and the United States has just discovered a huge gas reserve which is going to replace some of our dependence on imported energy.

So if you look ahead ten years, is Nigeria really going to be that relevant as a major oil producer, or just another of another of the many oil producers while the world moves on to alternative sources of energy and other sources of supply.

And what about its influence, its contributions to the continent? As our representative from the parliament talked about, there is a great history of those contributions. But that is history.

Is Nigeria really playing a major role today in the crisis in Niger on its border, or in Guinea, or in Darfur, or after many many promises making any contributions to Somalia? The answer is no, Nigeria is today NOT making a major impact, on its region, or on the African Union or on the big problems of Africa that it was making before.

What about its economic influence?

Well, as we have talked about earlier, there is a de-industrialization going on in Nigeria a lack of infrastructure, a lack of power means that with imported goods under globalization, Nigerian factories are closing, more and more people are becoming unemployed. and Nigeria is becoming a kind of society that imports and exports and lives off the oil, which does not make it a significant economic entity. Now, of course, on the negative side, the collapse of Nigeria would be enormous, but is that a point to make Nigeria strategically important?

Years ago, I worked for an Assistant Secretary of State who had the longest tenure in that job in the 1980s and I remember in one meeting a minister from a country not very friendly to the United States came in and was berating the Assistant Secretary on all the evils of the United States and all its dire plots and in things in Africa and was going on and on and finally the Assistant Secretary cut him off and said: "You know, the biggest danger for your relationship with the United States is not our oppostion but that we will find you irrelevant."

The point is that Nigeria can become much less relevant to the United States. We have already seen evidence of it. When President Obama went to Ghana and not to Nigeria, he was sending a message, that Ghana symbolized more of the significant trends, issues and importance that one wants to put on Africa than Nigeria.

And when I was asked by journalists why President Obama did not go to Nigeria, I said "what would he gain from going? Would Nigeria be a good model for democracy, would it be a model for good governance, would he obtain new commitments on Darfur or Somalia or strengthen the African Union or in Niger or elsewhere?" No he would not, so he did not go.

And when Secretary Clinton did go, indeed but she also went to Angola and who would have thought years ago that Angola would be the most stable country in the Gulf of Guinea and establish a binational commission in Angola.

So the handwriting may already be on the wall, and that is a sad commentary. Because what it means is that Nigeria's most important strategic importance in the end could be that it has failed.

And that is a sad sad conclusion. It does not have to happen, but I think that we ought to stop talking about what a great country it is, and how terribly important it is to us and talk about what it would take for Nigeria to be that important and great. And that takes an enormous amount of commitment. And you don't need saints, you don't need leaders like Nelson Mandela in every state, because you are not going to get them.

I served in South Korea in the middle of the 1960s and it was time when South Korea was poor and considered hopeless, but it was becoming to turn around, later to become to every person's amazement then the eleventh largest economy in the world. And I remember the economist in my mission saying, you know it did not bother him that the leading elites in the government of South Korea were taking 15 - 20 percent off the top of every project, as long as every project was a good one, and that was the difference. The leadership at the time was determined to solve the fundamental economic issues of South Korea economy and turn its economy around.

It has not happened in Nigeria today. You don't need saints. It needs leaders who say "You know we could be becoming irrelevant, and we got to do something about it."

Thank you.

*Princeton N. Lyman, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Africa Policy Studies, Council on Foreign Relations, Former U.S. ambassador to South Africa and Nigeria, made these remarks at the Achebe Foundation Colloquium on Nigerian Election at Providence, Rhode Island, USA, on December 11, 2009.

United States Supplied Scanners To Nigeria, But They Are Unused. Please Read This News Report And Laugh.

US Scanners Went Unused at Nigeria Airport

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) -- The U.S. gave Nigeria four full-body scanners for its international airports in 2008 to detect explosives and drugs, but none were used on the man suspected trying to blow up a Detroit-bound flight, Nigerian officials say.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, tracked by cameras through the security check, only went through a metal detector and had his bag X-rayed when he arrived at Nigeria's busiest airport to start his journey, the officials say.

The Soter RS scanners delivers 3-D images that would have shown something hidden under clothing. But a spokesman for the anti-drug agency, which operates the Nigerian machines, told The Associated Press that the one at Lagos airport is used sporadically and only on potential narcotics smugglers.

After clearing security at Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Abdulmutallab flew to Amsterdam, boarded Northwest Airlines Flight 253, and allegedly lit an explosive device hidden in his underpants as the plane approached Detroit on Christmas Day.

Even word of the scanners' presence in Nigeria's four main airports apparently hasn't reached top officials, including one responsible for airline safety.

Harold Demuren, the head of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, told reporters Wednesday that his government would buy 3-D full-body scanners for the airports, and insisted there were currently none there.

But on Thursday, Ofoyeju Mitchell of Nigeria's National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, told the AP that one of the machines sits in a room near the security checkpoint in Lagos' often chaotic international airport.

He said they aren't used on every passenger. Instead, drug agents select frequent flyers, travelers heading to and from drug shipment points, and people who seem deceptive or under stress. Nigeria is a major transit point for Afghan heroin and South American cocaine.

''The frequency of checks is determined by the risk level of our assessment ... (and) reasonable cause for suspicion,'' Mitchell said.

Such limited use is not what the U.S. State Department intended when it gave Nigeria the scanners.

According to an April 30 U.S. State Department report, the scanners were installed in March, May and June of 2008 ''to detect explosives and drugs on passengers.''

The U.S. Embassy in Nigeria would not comment on the use of the scanners.

Reuben Abati, a columnist at Nigeria's Guardian newspaper, highlighted a different risk factor -- a culture of graft and favoritism that allows VIPs to bypass screening.

''Big men and their wives and children are often piloted through security,'' Abati wrote. ''They could go straight to the tarmac to board the aircraft, depending on the scope of their influence. With the power of cash, anything can be taken onto an aircraft in Nigeria.''

Abdulmutallab's father is a prominent banker. However, Demuren and the country's Information Minister have said Abdulmutallab did go through a metal detector and had his bag X-rayed, citing security camera footage which they refuse to release.

Sam Adurogboye, a spokesman for the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, did not deny that some passengers have been allowed to breeze past security checkpoints.

''It is possible in the past that people may have gone above the law,'' he said. However, he insisted that new rules and their strict enforcement would prevent such practices from recurring.

Passengers can fly directly from this West African city to Europe and the United States. The most recent available statistics say some 2.1 million international travelers passed through the airport in 2006.

In new information released Thursday, Information Minister Dora Akunyili said Abdulmutallab flew into Lagos from Accra, Ghana on Christmas Eve and ''spent less than 30 minutes'' in the airport before catching the flight to Amsterdam.

Nigerian officials had said earlier that his round-trip ticket was bought in Accra for $2,831 in cash on Dec. 16. Akunyili's statement did not say how he spent the rest of the week before flying to Lagos.

Abdulmutallab raised no alarms as he boarded the flight to Amsterdam. He also underwent a second set of searches in Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport that turned up nothing.

Schiphol has 15 scanners, but the U.S. has discouraged their routine use on privacy grounds. Dutch authorities say Abdulmutallab raised no suspicions that would require a scan.

Demuren, the civil aviation chief, said scanners Nigeria will buy are ''very new machines'' used in few airports worldwide. ''Nigeria is determined to acquire these,'' he said.

He referred further questions to the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, the agency that oversees airport construction and maintenance. An agency spokesman could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Since the attempted bombing, the police presence at the Lagos airport has noticeably increased, with officers cradling weathered assault rifles both inside and outside the terminal. Airline officials also are making a point of going through every bag presented to them at check-in.

"Can Nigeria's Police Be Reformed?" You Know This Is A Rhetorical Question, Right?

Can Nigeria's police be reformed?

Nigerian police officers on patrol in Enugu

Even before the violence surrounding the Boko Haram uprising in northern Nigeria, there were questions over the conduct of the security forces. In the fifth and final part of a series of articles, the BBC's Andrew Walker looks at the prospects for effective police reform:

Everyone in Nigeria has experienced the failure of the police to carry out their duty to uphold the law - from the routine "dashing" money to officers at road checkpoints and failures to investigate crimes to horrifying tales of extortion and murder.

The litany of crimes they commit fill pages of newspapers and reports from human rights organisations.

Put a microphone in front of people in the street, however, and they will say one thing: "It's not as bad as it used to be."

Most people will feel that if you say something about the police it could be trouble for you, they may trace you
Anonymous Abuja resident

This BBC series has revealed first-hand how the police struggle against incompetence, poor training and equipment.

How they arbitrarily arrest and imprison people and how "shockingly common" extra-judicial executions are.

Such is the mistrust of the police that ordinary people prefer to patrol their own streets and administer their own "jungle justice".

So what are the prospects for improving the police to make it an effective service?

Political independence

The government is currently attempting to reform the police.

KEY WHITE PAPER REFORMS

Better pay Police officers are paid as little as $40 (£26) a month, this should be raised to $100 for police constables

Bad eggs Deal with the estimated 10,000 officers with criminal records hired between 2001 and 2004

Complaints A reliable system for the public to complain should be established

Better educated Recruits should attain a certain level of qualification before being considered

Promotions Job applications should be transparently managed

Uniforms Policemen should not have to buy their own

Communications Police should get an up-to-date communication network

Equipment Police should be given better investigating tools and the training to use them

They have produced a White Paper with 79 recommendations for improving the police force, which is due to be considered by the National Assembly and turned into a Police Reform Bill.

Reading them it is clear how far the police have to go.

According to the paper, the police needs to be seriously overhauled from better training, new uniforms, more pay, the building of new police stations and colleges to better equipment and promotion regimes.

It describes the resources needed to do it as "enormous", and says it will take at least five years.

But police reform activists say the proposals do not tackle the serious issue of political independence.

"The police will continue to see their job as carrying out the will of the political powers," says Innocent Chukwuma of the Cleen Foundation.

He says recommendations that would have removed the president's power to appoint the chief of police and give the appointee security of tenure in office were taken out of the white paper.

Force or service?

Those in the police itself agree it will be a long road.

"There are numerous challenges the police face," says Assistant Commissioner Austin Iwar at the force headquarters in the capital, Abuja.

Nigerian police officer
Poor equipment is not the only problem the police have, reformers say

"The police as it is now came out of a military administration. That is probably the biggest challenge we face - turning it from a force into a service."

He agrees that police officers often lack the skills needed to police effectively.

But he refuses to admit the most serious allegations made about the police - that they brutally torture and sometimes kill suspects without trial.

"I have spent a long time in investigations in the police and I have never tortured anyone to make a case," he says.

His job is to strengthen the police's "community policing" initiative.

In short, this means improving the relationship between the police and the community, so people do not feel the law is something alien or foreign to them.

Then, when a crime occurs community leaders can bring information to the police to help locate the criminals.

It is a programme supported since 2002 by the UK government's £30m ($45m) Security Justice and Growth programme.

But privately, officers say there is a big problem with reform.

Once an officer gets to a rank where it is possible to make reforms, he or she is so deeply involved in a corrupt system that they cannot change it.

'Bad eggs'

Past attempts at reform have faltered.

In 2007, Inspector General Sunday Ehindero announced that more than 10,000 officers would be sacked in an attempt to root out "bad eggs".

Thousands of officers with criminal records had been knowingly employed by his predecessor Tafa Balogun, who was later convicted on corruption charges.

But the officers who were sacked were often not the "bad eggs", an investigation by the National Assembly heard afterwards

Instead, they had wormed their way into the system and survived the purge.

The investigation also heard how police regulators and the government officials in charge of policing were fully aware of the existence of criminal officers, but for more than five years did nothing about it.

Talking to Nigerians on the streets of Abuja about their police force, most are up-beat about the possibilities of reform.

"They are trying," says 29-year-old Salome, a shopkeeper.

"They need to improve training and pay," says Ibrahim, a civil servant.

But people are also cautious; no-one the BBC spoke to would agree to have their picture taken.

"Most people will feel that if you say something about the police it could be trouble for you, they may trace you," one man said - refusing to give his name.

Nigeria's Vigilante 'Jungle Justice'

Nigeria's vigilante 'jungle justice'

In the second of a series of articles looking at policing in Nigeria, the BBC's Andrew Walker meets a group of vigilantes who guard residential neighbourhoods in the south-eastern city of Enugu.

Paul Oparaji is the chairman of a local neighbourhood watch group in Enugu - quite normal for a pensioner, one might think.

But in Nigeria "neighbourhood watch" means taking to the streets with a gun or machete and possibly lynching armed robbers.

At an age where other men are keen to put their feet up and enjoy the company of their family, Mr Oparaji is a vigilante, prepared to dispense what he calls "jungle justice".

"Imagine myself, at 73 I haven't had a full night's sleep in eight years," he says.

"But if I don't do it, and robbers come here, my family and I will be maimed."

Every night at around 2230, he and 18 other men strap their ancient shotguns to their backs and walk through their neighbourhood banging a large metal bell to let the people in their houses know someone is watching over them, and let the robbers know someone is coming.

'Magic cutlass'

This "informal policing" happens in cities across Nigeria. The vigilantes are the only ones that stand between robbers and residents.

If you catch a thief you are expected to take him to the police, but we can give him jungle justice if he is armed

On patrol with Nigeria's police
Are your police accountable?

And if they get caught, a robber can expect to be killed before the authorities arrive.

The police say the presence of vigilante groups is "welcome".

"They pre-date the police, and they compliment our efforts. The police can't get into every nook and cranny," says police spokesman Emmanuel Ojukwu.

The police try to send officers out on patrol with as many vigilante groups as possible, but with one policeman for every 400 Nigerians this is difficult.

Any vigilantes who kill suspects would face the law, he said.

Until two years ago, the infamous Bakassi Boys policed the streets of neighbouring Anambra State.

They executed suspects with a "magic cutlass" which they said glowed in the presence of armed robbers - but only the Bakassi Boys themselves could see the glow.

Following a change in state administration, the Bakassi Boys were chased away, and other groups have taken their place.

The British government's Department for International Development (DfID) is working with vigilante squads like Mr Oparaji's, trying to educate them about the law and human rights to prevent them executing suspects.

They want to prevent groups like the Bakassi Boys from becoming popular again.

But on the streets of many Nigerian cities, people would rather police themselves and mete out their own punishment.

'Robbers deserve it'

"If you catch a thief you are expected to take him to the police, but we can give him jungle justice if he is armed," says Mr Oparaji, himself a retired policeman.

"If he is armed, if he wants to kill us, we don't feel sorry for him," he says.

Mr Oparaji is keen to say that he has never seen his vigilante group kill anyone, but he has heard of other groups catching and killing thieves.

"When I hear about that, I feel sorry because it means our people are not yet wise, but the robbers deserved it."

He appeals to the government to give vigilante groups like his guns.

"You cannot pursue the thief with an empty hand, or with a knife you cannot attack the thief with a gun."

No police

The problem is that the police don't patrol many areas during the night.

"There is no-one who can protect us, they come and rob us and rape our children," said Paul Eze, 52, another vigilante group member.

"We aren't paid for this, it's a voluntary thing."

"Nigerian police only work in the afternoon, from midnight you can hardly see a policeman on the streets."

They accuse the police of hiring themselves out to rich people and businesses as armed security at night.

Trust

Vigilante groups are a well established part of Nigerian society.

People trust them more than they trust the police.

If they catch someone red-handed, they would much rather exact punishment on them then and there

They are members of the community, and in the past robbers have been released by corrupt police officers and returned to torment the communities who handed them over.

Vigilante expert Chris Ugwu says many Nigerians see the rule of law as an alien concept.

"Some police have been compromised - the robber hands over some money and is released. He will go back and gloat to the people who handed him over."

"If they catch someone red-handed, they would much rather exact punishment on them then and there," he says.

Training

Since 2006 the British government has been working with vigilante groups trying to educate them about the law and prevent them from lynching suspects.

It is part of the £30million Security Justice and Growth programme, which has been running in Nigeria since 2002.

They provide the groups with training and some equipment, like boots and rain coats.

They have registered vigilante groups and asked them to sign up to a charter requiring them not to execute suspects.

"There was a need to mobilise the public to compliment the efforts of the police," says Mr Ugwu, who works as a consultant for the British Council.

"But they were engaging in extra-judicial killing, torture, and there was the need to teach them about human rights."

He says it will be impossible to get rid of vigilante groups.

In the future he hopes they will have a different role, providing local intelligence for a more effective police force.

But Mr Oparaji says that in Nigeria people must be self-reliant.

"This is a country where wealth is flowing, but nobody protects anyone."

"If you can't protect yourself, you are finished," he says.

"On Patrol With Nigeria's Police".

On patrol with Nigeria's police

Police man a checkpoint in Enugu, eastern Nigeria

In the first of a series of articles looking at policing in Nigeria, the BBC's Andrew Walker goes on a patrol with the newly formed, elite Specialist Anti-Robbery Squad (Sars) in the eastern city of Enugu.

With machine-gun at the ready, a policeman flags down a car with his torch.

"You! Out Now!" he barks.

The driver wordlessly complies, standing with hands raised before being asked, the routine is now so familiar.

What kind of human being are we working with, we needed back-up!

Who polices the police?

The Nigerian police have a terrible reputation for corruption and brutality.

But they also have problems with their technical capacity to fight crime.

The main method used by this elite unit of police officers is to stop cars at random looking for guns.

"When criminals see us, their behaviour changes. We're looking for people who try and run from us," Sars' Commanding Officer Stephen Osaghae told the BBC.

Their aggressive manner, which includes pointing loaded automatic weapons at drivers who have done nothing to arouse suspicion, is necessary, they say.

"You have to make everyone think when Sars are around, they are the owners of the job," says Inspector Olawole Ohiolebo.

On the night the BBC was out with them, Sars did not find any weapons.

Mr Osaghae admits there is probably a better way of catching armed robbers.

"But we don't have the equipment. In Europe you have helicopters and other sophisticated gadgets, we don't."

Chase

At one of the patrol stops, a van approaching them does a quick u-turn.

It's the moment the police have been waiting for.

But it takes them too long to get into their truck and by the time they are in pursuit, the van has gone.

The radio they have doesn't work properly and they can't inform other police of where they are for several minutes.

Only one truck has been pursuing the suspects.

When they meet up with their second police car, Mr Osaghae is furious.

"What kind of human being are we working with? We needed back-up!" he yells at his men.

They return to the barracks without making any arrests.

Ambush

The life of a policeman in Nigeria is dangerous.

A few weeks before the BBC caught up with the men from Sars, their patrol was ambushed by a gang.

Someone sent them into a trap. Their pick-up truck was blown up with dynamite placed by the side of the road.

Three officers were killed in the gunfight that followed.

Inspector Godspower points to a line shaved into his scalp.

"The bullet went here. Fsst!"

He motions over his head, tracing the path of the shot that nearly killed him.

Another one went right through his arm.

The police officers say armed robbers are unredeemable evil misfits who smoke marijuana to dull their senses, kill without remorse and use black magic charms to protect themselves.

Patrolmen say Enugu's robbers are led by a notorious bandit called Ngukelomo, who has political connections which have enabled him to be released from custody in the past.

Capacity

Some of the men admit to being afraid they might one day get killed.
map

"The robbers we come up against have sophisticated weapons, better than ours. We have no bulletproof vests. We need better equipment to protect us," says patrolman Tiku, a 34-year-old officer who has been with the police for 10 years.

Kemi Okenyodo, of police reform group the Cleen Foundation, says the police need more than just expensive gadgets to improve their ability to work effectively.

"The police capacity to investigate crime is next to zero," she says.

Officers are not trained in policing techniques - if they do have qualifications, they are often irrelevant to police work, she says.

Nowhere is the police's lack of capacity more evident, reformers say, than in the interrogation of suspects.

Interrogation

Back at the Sars office the next day, two suspects are brought to Mr Osaghae's office.

One, a young man is accused of organising the rape and robbery of a woman who lives in a building he used to guard.
Police interrogation
Police have been accused of torture and executing suspects

"You will take us to your accomplices," orders Mr Osaghae.

"I don't know who you are talking about," says the man.

"Why are you lying? Take him back to the cells. In 15 minutes you will tell the truth," says Mr Osaghae.

When asked what he meant by that, he refuses to elaborate.

Before speaking to another suspect, Mr Osaghae asks for 15 minutes alone with him.

When the BBC is let back in the room, the man tearfully confesses to being a kidnapper.

Mrs Okenyodo says the Cleen Foundation has pictures and witness statements that accuse Sars police of torture and killing of suspects.

Enugu Commissioner of Police Mohammed Zarewa denies his men beat confessions out of people - the deaths are likely to be as a result of fire-fights with armed criminals, he says.

"Any criminal can get a lawyer and make up a story," he says.

Mr Zarewa has just been posted to Enugu, and he promises to investigate any accusation levelled against his officers.

But Mrs Okenyodo says none of the cases brought up by police reform activists have been investigated.

"The east of Nigeria, in terms of policing, is crazy," she says.

"They Just Tell You They Have Transferred His Case To Abuja."

Nigeria police: Issuing corpses and denials
By Caroline Duffield

"It really overwhelms our capacity to store bodies," says Dr Anthony Mbah, chief medical director at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital.

His mortuary is overflowing - with corpses brought in by the police.

The police are facing criticism over the deaths

"It really overwhelms our capacity to store bodies," says Dr Anthony Mbah, chief medical director at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital.

His mortuary is overflowing - with corpses brought in by the police.

"We have between 70 and 80 bodies right now... and about three weeks ago, there was a mass burial of some other corpses," he says.

"We are now getting ready to get these ones buried."

Inside the mortuary in the south-eastern city of Enugu, two rooms are set aside for the remains of the young men.

In the first room, they are stacked, naked, one on top of the other. In places the piles are four or five deep.

Faces peer out amongst a forest of legs. Heads loll into groins. Limbs are flung around torsos. Some almost seem to embrace. The smell - and the flies - make it impossible to get close.

It is a scene beyond belief.

Fathers' pain

The mortuary is in a state of chaos. No-one working here can put a precise number on the corpses. Many of the bodies have no names. Mortuary records simply say "suspected armed robber" or "unknown thief".


The register says police left 75 bodies between the beginning of June and 26 November this year.

But the records are imperfect - staff correct mistakes as they go along, one page appears to be missing.

It is uncertain how many of these bodies really are those of armed robbers.

The father of one victim of a police shooting has no doubt about the innocence of his son.

"A child is a gift from the Gods. They have taken him from me," Chief Dennis Onovo murmurs.

The morning that Mr Onovo's 22-year-old son, Matthew, died he had been walking to a computer class. Police were searching for an armed man in the area - and shot him dead.

"I always hoped my son will one day be governor of this state, or even head of state - but all my effort is in vain," says Mr Onovo.

For two days, the community stood still as people came out in peaceful demonstration.

The police told Matthew's parents he was suspected of armed robbery.

"This boy was not an armed robber. He was never a thief, much less an armed robber," says Mr Onovo.

"As they killed him, they killed me, my life is over."

Emmanuel Egbo's parents say he was a keen student, not a criminal

A few miles away, another father echoes his words.

Chief Mark Ngena trembles, remembering.

"He was playing with his fellow children," he says of his 13-year-old son Emmanuel.

"Suddenly policemen, three of them, came in. They shot and killed this boy. Murdered him in cold blood."

It was later claimed that Emmanuel too was an armed robber.

His family have never recovered his body.

Lawyers and relatives point to a pattern - of unlawful killings by police, followed by claims the deceased was an armed robber.

It is an easy way to cover dirty tracks, they say.

Police 'are victims too'

Enugu State Police Commissioner Mohamed Zarewa looks at the photograph of piled up bodies in the mortuary and covers them with his hand.

"I am not aware of that number you are talking. I am not aware, I am not aware," he says.

He mutters it five or six times.

Officers in his force do not carry out unlawful or arbitrary killings, he insists.

He says the young men were all killed in gun battles, fighting the police.

"Not just to go and kill somebody, we don't do that, it's unconstitutional. We are in a democracy," he says.

"You are asking about the young men, why are you not asking about the policemen who died? We people, we lose our lives."

It is true that police work in Nigeria is a difficult job - often deadly.

An encounter between a police officer and a real armed robber is a matter of life or death.

Police officers' wages are low. Corruption in the force is endemic. Poorly trained and ill-equipped policemen are sent to face armed gangs.

But it is also true that many people are killed in police custody.

Punishment without trial

In the Brought in Dead book, seven names are of particular interest.

Brought in Dead book
The Brought in Dead book revealed names of interest

Kennis Victor Okonkwo, Adolphus Odumegwu, Sunday Okoye, Hussein Yusuf, Ugochukwu Ogbonnaya, Amichi Nnamdi, and Ifeani Eze Leonard.

They were arrested, accused of a kidnapping in early September.

On 11 September they were paraded by the inspector-general of Police.

Photos of them alive appeared in local newspapers.

But they never reached court.

By 15 September six of them were dead. The body of the last was delivered to the mortuary the following day.

By each name is written SARS, Special Anti-Robbery Squad - a feared police unit.

When asked for an explanation, Police Commissioner Zarewa said he was too busy.

'Equivalent to hell'

"They told me they have transferred my brother to Abuja," says Charles, a shy 22-year-old.

His older brother was in trouble with the police, accused of robbery.

map

Charles took a food flask for his brother, and travelled for two days to reach the police station.

On arrival he was arrested, accused of armed robbery, and held for three months.

"Inside there was equivalent to hell," he says.

He says he was taken out of his cell, hung by the knees and beaten. But he feels lucky as it happened only a couple of times.

A man held with him suffered a similar punishment, but his joints were smashed. He screamed as he crawled back into the cell.

Briefly, Charles was held opposite his own brother and the two had the chance to talk.

After that, Charles never saw him again.

"It is the slang they use," he says quietly.

"They are not going to tell you openly your brother is killed. They just tell you they have transferred his case to Abuja."